14th May 2026 – An open letter signed by 78 environmental organisations has today been sent to 108 companies that operate or are planning to invest in data centres in the UK, urging them to refrain from partnering with Drax Group. The groups that have signed the letter are based in the UK and in countries supplying wood pellets to Drax, i.e. the USA, Canada, the Baltic States, Portugal and Brazil.
Drax power station, in Yorkshire, is the UK’s single biggest emitter of CO2. It burns more wood than any other plant in the world, all of it imported and much of it sourced from highly biodiverse and carbon-rich forests. Last year, the Government approved a new, 4-year long subsidies contract starting in 2027, when the company’s existing subsidies run out. However, those subsidies will cover less than half the biomass electricity compared to what Drax generated in 2025. Drax is therefore looking to partner with a company willing to develop a large data centre, possibly next to their power station, that would purchase additional electricity from them. This would allow them to burn significantly more wood pellets than they will be able to do otherwise.
The open letter explains: “75% of the wood pellets burned by Drax come from the Southeastern USA. Every year since 2014, on-the-ground investigations have shown that pellets sourced by Drax routinely include wood from the clearcutting of mature, highly biodiverse hardwood forests. Those forests are located inside a global biodiversity hotspot.“ In addition, as stated in the letter: “Wood pellet plants in the Southeastern USA… are predominantly sited in low-income communities or communities of colour who are already exposed to high levels of industrial pollution…Land and Climate Review found that, by the beginning of 2026, Drax had violated environmental limits over 18,000 times in the US, and 6,000 times in Louisiana alone.”
Almuth Ernsting from Biofuelwatch says: “Any data centre company partnering with Drax would be signing up for expensive electricity from burning trees, at the expense of the climate, of forests and wildlife, and of communities living next to pellet plants that are linked to Drax. This is why we are urging data centre operators and investors to refrain from partnering with Drax.
Heather Hillaker from the Southern Environmental Law Center (southern U.S.), said: “Using biomass energy to power a data center is a reckless and expensive mistake that would worsen the impacts of climate change while doing long-lasting damage to communities and forests in the Southern United States. Data center companies should be prioritizing proven clean energy solutions–not costly biomass boondoggles peddled by companies like Drax.”
Merry Dickinson, Lead Campaigner for Yorkshire-based Stop Burning Trees Coalition, said: “Partnering with Drax means partnering with a company responsible for the destruction of forests, pollution of low-income Black communities and co-signing the harms Drax is responsible for around the world. There is nothing clean or green about this company and anyone looking to build data centres should avoid Drax at all costs.”
Matt Williams, Senior Advocate for NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), said: “A data centre powered by Drax would burn millions of tonnes of trees every year. This is the furthest thing imaginable from a clean, technologically advanced future.”
The letter can be found at https://docs.google.com/document/d/12XvdYr4el7dNeNNFc-AX9BqJvyruTmNGlbJiDaaO_1Y/edit?tab=t.0.